What is happening in peer-to-peer lending - Market Commentary – 18th March 2015

Last post: Mar 18, 2015

The Secret Investor reviews the peer to peer lending market 18th of March 2015

Totals lent to date (18rd March 2015)

Assetz Capital - £62 million plus

Funding Circle - £569,517,500

FundingKnight - £11,970,000

FundingSecure - £4,427,354

Lending Works - £6,433,082

Money & Co – £4,125,000

Rebuildingsociety - £5,473,680

ThinCats - £97,447,000

Zopa - £773,000,000

RateSetter £551,437,294

Invest and Fund - £ not currently available

LendingCrowd - £ not currently available

ArchOver -£3,255,000

…………..

Assetz Capital

Assetz Capital's investors have so far funded £62 million plus of loans.

Strangely, it has been a quiet couple of weeks with only one new loan becoming available. However, there are still others that have been around for some time that you can invest in, although a number seem to be struggling to get fully subscribed.

Funding Circle

To date, it has processed loans totaling £569,517,500 – an increase of 3.88% in 2 weeks.

Anther excellent two weeks in terms of money lent to a variety of businesses. Funding Circle are certainly consistent in this respect.

They are to be congratulated for being added to The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies To Work For 2015 list having gone in at number 46.

From an investor's perspective, it is good to see that they are providing improved feedback on loans that have defaulted.

FundingKnight

To date, it has processed loans totaling £11,970,000 – an increase of 11.89% in 2 weeks.

What a busy couple of weeks with over £1 million lent in that period with the loan requests appearing to be taken up very quickly by investors.

There are currently a couple of opportunities with a plant hire company seeking £120,000 for additional machinery/ refinance existing borrowing and a buy to let agency seeking £275,000 to grow the business.

FundingSecure

FundingSecure has administered advances totaling £4,427,354 (as at 3rd March 2015- no up to date figures available).

There are 5 loans available to invest in with all of them being secured against bricks and mortar/land. The security offered is interesting because, historically, FundingSecure's borrowers have tended to offer, shall we say "unusual forms of security" such as sculptures within the eye of a needle, boats, classic cars or fine art.

Lending Works

Lending Works has arranged loans totaling £6,433,082 – an increase of 8.11% in 2 weeks.

Yet another excellent two weeks with over £400,000 lent.

Lending Works has announced that, from April, lenders will be able to withdraw their interest repayments or a mixture of capital and interest repayments on a monthly basis. They feel their Auto Income Tool may well appeal to older lenders who are looking to supplement their retirement income.

Money & Co

The amount lent so far is £4,125,000.

Having had a quiet period, with few lending opportunities for investors, there is currently a soft furnishing manufacturing company seeking £500,000 and it is already 2/3rds funded.

rebuildingsociety

rebuildingsociety's loan book stands at £5,473,680 – an increase of 2.08% in 2 weeks.

There are 3 loans available one of which is for a property management company that manages expensive holiday homes and private second homes in affluent Salcombe. It is seeking £40,000 towards the cost of IT improvements, additional office space, more vehicles and recruitment of a part-time finance director. This has already been fully funded.

ThinCats

The amount lent so far is £97,447,000 – an increase of 2.56% in the last 2 weeks.

There are a couple of interesting loans available to invest in: -

A company is seeking £300,000 to help produce Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure computer games.

A private finance company is looking to raise two tranches of finance, each for £250,000, to lend to businesses in the hospitality, leisure and entertainment leasehold. We are seeing an increasing number of finance companies turn to peer-to –per lending to source their funds. That is great news for the industry.

Zopa and RateSetter

Zopa

To date, Zopa has been involved in loans totalling £773 million – an increase of 1.84% in 2 weeks.

Congratulations to Zopa who, in the last few days, celebrated its 10th anniversary being the first peer-to-peer lender.

RateSetter

To date, it has been involved in loans totaling £551,437,294 – an increase of 4.28% in 2 weeks.

This is another excellent performance.

However, another positive set of statistics from RareSetter that investors will find of interest relates to their default rates. In 2014 their expected default rate was 2.297% yet the actual default rate was only 0.699%. In 2013, the comparable figures were 1.54% and 1.25%. In 2012, the comparable figures were 1.40% and 0.915%.

We have just added the following three peer-to-peer lenders to our commentary so why not take a look at their websites.

Invest & Fund

A business can borrow between £5,000 to £1 million. They have a variety of businesses seeking finance such as a property developer, tax and management accounts consultant, debt collectors and a business that provides driving experiences in Classic American Muscle Cars.

LendingCrowd

Business loans of between £5,000 to £250,000 are available. They currently have a couple of new lending propositions available with one of those from the world's largest fish vaccination company (mainly salmon at the moment) seeking £100,000 for working capital. There are also numerous opportunities to invest in their Loan Exchange that consists of established, partly funded loans.

ArchOver

To date, it has lent £3,255,000.

Business loans from £75,000 are available with no maximum figure. They currently have a couple of lending opportunities with one being for £175,000 from a company that provides finance to legal firms.

We trust that you have found the above to be of interest.

Comment

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